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August 3, 2018/Economic Indicators, Other Issues/Sarah BarrOn July 27th the U.S. Commerce Department released new gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for 2018 Q2. The U.S. GDP grew by 4.1%, up from 2.2% in the first quarter, which was in line with expectations. Business Forward hosted a webinar with Paul Bishop, Vice President of the National Association of Realtors, to discuss these numbers and their impact on the housing market.
Contributions to growth came particularly from a 4% increase in consumer spending, along with personal consumption...

https://www.businessfwd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/paul-bishop-gdp-economy-blueprints.jpg570840actualize studiohttps://www.businessfwd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/BF-stacked-logo-copy.pngactualize studio2018-08-03 19:27:152018-08-03 19:27:32GDP and the Housing Market: Perspectives from Paul Bishop of the National Association of Realtors

January 26, 2018/Economic Indicators/Lexie BriggsThe U.S. Commerce Department released new gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for Q4 and year-end 2017 on January 26, and the numbers were close to but slightly lower than what experts predicted: the U.S. GDP grew 2.3% in 2017 and 2.6% in Q4 2017. Hours after the numbers were released, Business Forward hosted a webinar featuring Ed Keon, Managing Director of QMA, a PGIM Company. The real story from these numbers, Keon said, will come down to productivity.
Going into Friday, experts predicted...

June 6, 2014/Economic Indicators, Other Issues/ Erik Roos, Policy Analyst
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 217,000 jobs in May. Unemployment remained unchanged from April at 6.3 percent.
On Monday, Business Forward will host a free interactive webinar on the implications of this jobs report with Dr. Jennifer Hunt, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Sign up for our free webinar on the jobs report >
Here are some highlights from the employment...

May 6, 2013/Economic Indicators, Other Issues/ Nikhil Joshi, Research Director
The Conference Board Employment Trends Index, which uses eight different labor-market indicators to pick out underlying trends that are moving the job market, reached its highest point since June 2008 this morning. The report doesn’t point to fast accelerating job growth (that won’t come unless GDP growth picks up), but does bode well for the steady, consistent job creation needed to keep the recovery moving forward.
Friday’s April Jobs Report pointed to strong and consistent...

May 3, 2013/Economic Indicators, Other Issues/Nikhil Joshi, Research DirectorThe economy added 165,000 jobs last month, above analyst projections and an improvement over March’s increase of 138,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.5%. Concerns of a spring slowdown sparked by last month’s weak report appear to be unfounded – but the details of the report show that sharp and sudden government cutbacks from the sequester are hurting the job market.
The first four months of employment data for the year paint an encouraging picture. Businesses have added...

May 2, 2013/Economic Indicators, Other Issues/ Nikhil Joshi, Research Director
It’s no secret that American manufacturers have been at the leading edge of the economic recovery. We’ve added 520,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2010, the strongest period of manufacturing job growth since the 1990’s. And stories about companies like GE and Ford moving operations back to the U.S. pop up seemingly every week.
But the manufacturing sector is digging itself out of a deep, deep hole. The U.S. lost 41 percent of its manufacturing jobs...

January 25, 2013/Economic Indicators/Jim DoyleThis past weekend, President William Jefferson Clinton, senior executives from three of America’s most innovative companies, and President Obama’s deputy national security advisor helped brief more than 500 local business leaders on the need for immigration reform, best practices in workforce development, eliminating unnecessary regulations, and how to encourage more manufacturing in America.
To see photos of the day, please click here.
We’re pleased with our strong start to 2013 –...

January 12, 2013/Economic Indicators/Business ForwardAt midnight on December 31st, 2012, the United States would have defaulted on its debt obligations were it not for “extraordinary measures” undertaken by the treasury department to prevent it.
According to the non-partisan Governmental Accountability Office (GAO), failure by Congress to increase the debt ceiling in 2011 led to uncertainty and higher Treasury borrowing costs—costing the taxpayer $18.9 billion over the next ten years.
The debt limit looms large in Fiscal Cliff 2.0...